[Xmca-l] Re: My Hometown Minneapolis

[David Kellogg]

There is hard evidence that criminal elements are empowered by protests:
criminal elements in "law enforcement" that is.

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/06/video-officers-slashing-tires-minneapolis-protests.html__;!!Mih3wA!Xg88O-VI78dVBzFH4qkTTrPz4V4L9hTV7PL8it682OJ_-GDfr_ZIPPdLeb9MSkPV2W94BA$ 


David Kellogg
Sangmyung University

New Article: Ruqaiya Hasan, in memoriam: A manual and a manifesto.
Outlines, Spring 2020
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tidsskrift.dk/outlines/article/view/116238__;!!Mih3wA!Xg88O-VI78dVBzFH4qkTTrPz4V4L9hTV7PL8it682OJ_-GDfr_ZIPPdLeb9MSkMJqvoBBA$ 
New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: *L.S. Vygotsky's Pedological
Works* *Volume
One: Foundations of Pedology*"
 https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!Xg88O-VI78dVBzFH4qkTTrPz4V4L9hTV7PL8it682OJ_-GDfr_ZIPPdLeb9MSkOvXkzcQQ$ 


On Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 5:22 AM Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:

> Anthony,
>
> I'm not up on my recent history so I looked up "The Ferguson Effect" and
> found this link:
>
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_effect__;!!Mih3wA!Xg88O-VI78dVBzFH4qkTTrPz4V4L9hTV7PL8it682OJ_-GDfr_ZIPPdLeb9MSkODJupOUg$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_effect__;!!Mih3wA!Wrb5nztyxIWQJePOViDxdlXyf-Nz0lKCXr-Sq01UtuLKHM6CwQ-PEhrbx6gDrWe0Acj0DQ$>
>
> Which states that distrust of police has caused increase in crime, that "the
> criminal element is feeling empowered." I'm having a hard time with that
> phrase and its meaning, which was coined by the Dotson, St. Louis police
> chief, by the way.
>
> Why on earth would the police get to name the scenario for which they are
> the author and sole perpetrators of this particular form social injustice?
> That is like the rapist getting to decide what are the facts and
> consequences of his act of rape upon the victim. That makes no sense at all.
>
> If you want to really take it "to heart," why would the police do this to
> themselves? If the consequence of their actions was to "privilege" the
> "criminal element"? Should I say "poor, poor police officers!" ??
> Intelligent leadership would agree that police reform is valid and that the
> police have to work HARDER to instill trust in their own communities. It's
> on them to reject bad cop behavior and to punish the "bad apples" who sully
> the officers who do actually provide service to their communities.
>
> (Also: Note the dehumanizing of the phrase "criminal element." Why not
> just say "criminals feel empowered." But it doesn't matter... Most
> criminals feel empowered, regardless of AA profiling. Or was he including
> "white collar criminal elements" too?)
>
>
> I'm not sure you are being appropriate at all. Please do not take my words
> and twist them, thank you.
>
> I disagree with you entirely in many ways, there isn't a need to balance
> head with heart, because that is the entire Cartesian fallacy, that head
> and heart are separated. It's not about balance, it's about
> appropriateness.
>
> What we need is holistic awareness of doing what has to be done in the
> here and now.
>
> Please wake up. What we are experiencing is what we have witnessed in
> "other countries" with authoritarian leaders: a strengthening of police for
> surveillance, monitoring, and control of the citizenry. When you look at
> the video of George Floyd or Eric Garner, or others being shot in the back,
> etc. you should instead think, "THAT is me, unless I do something about
> it."
>
> Do you want to live in a world where your neck has a police officer's knee
> upon it? Because that is what is coming for you but only unless you decide
> to do something about it.
>
> Here is something that is appropriate:
>
> "They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I
> wasn't a Communist.
>
> Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
>
> Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I
> wasn't a trade unionist.
>
> Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a
> Protestant.
>
> Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
>
>
>
> Niemöller backed Hitler at first, remember.  His "criminal element" was
> that he thought he was better than the others, he thought he was protected.
> He thought he was privileged. That he would never be taken away.
>
> What kind of world do you want anyway?
>
> What are you willing to do for change?
>
> What is *your* imagination on that?
>
> Have you any ideas at all?
>
> Or are we just chatting as something to pass time while in shelter?
>
> How do you plan to take action.
>
> Meaningful action.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Annalisa
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Anthony Barra <anthonymbarra@gmail.com>
> *Sent:* Sunday, June 7, 2020 1:33 PM
> *To:* eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject:* [Xmca-l] Re: My Hometown Minneapolis
>
>
> *  [EXTERNAL]*
> Thank you, Annalisa.  I think what you say here about the real costs of
> 'waiting around for data' is quite beautiful:
> "I feel that this is a perhaps unintended reaction that has a consequence
> to prolong the lack of care our communities need. That is, to leisurely sit
> and debate about causes while the injured bleed to death.
>
> Maybe it's not appropriate to get "academic" about this right now. Maybe
> there is an emotional bypass going on.
>
> There's something very Cartesian about trying to solve a problem into
> parts as if doing so will provide clarity of cause. The worth of African
> American lives is not a mathematical proof. I feel this numbers talk
> dehumanizes people.
>
> At the same time, I'm not attempting to censor anyone. We need to talk. It
> is good."
>
> Talk is good, and as far as I'm currently aware, the so-called "Ferguson
> Effect" has turned out to be real. Unfortunately and terribly so, with its
> own real costs.
>
> So, as I believe you implied, there is indeed a balance to strike between
> the proverbial heart and head.
>
> Anthony
>
>
>
> On Sunday, June 7, 2020, Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
>
> Hello fellow gardeners of Us and Them,
>
> I have to agree with Michael, without meaning to put words in his mouth,
> but I feel his meaning is, getting into arguments about statistics, when it
> is well known there is injustice of profiling African American men and that
> there are too many being murdered by police for no reason, doesn't mean
> that murder of other colors is any less unsavory. Murder is murder,
> corruption is corruption, injustice is injustice.
>
> Let's not get into suffering contests that go no where, "My suffering is
> worse than yours," or "their suffering is worse than ours". That really
> doesn't speak to the issue that clearly quacks like a duck. Or should we
> argue whether it is a duck or not?
>
> Another problem I'm having in this reading to this discussion (not just on
> this list), is to debate about the cause. Clearly the issue of any sort of
> injustice doesn't have a neat and clean cause-and-effect rhythm. Oh, if
> only we can change the cause we can alter its effects. But when something
> happened (or didn't happen as the case may be) ~250+ years ago, it's hard
> to time travel and change the history. Yes, we should understand it.
>
> Yet, when someone is bleeding from a gunshot wound, does it help at that
> moment to ask "Who pulled the trigger?"
>
> I feel that this is a perhaps unintended reaction that has a consequence
> to prolong the lack of care our communities need. That is, to leisurely sit
> and debate about causes while the injured bleed to death.
>
> Maybe it's not appropriate to get "academic" about this right now. Maybe
> there is an emotional bypass going on.
>
> There's something very Cartesian about trying to solve a problem into
> parts as if doing so will provide clarity of cause. The worth of African
> American lives is not a mathematical proof. I feel this numbers talk
> dehumanizes people.
>
> At the same time, I'm not attempting to censor anyone. We need to talk. It
> is good.
>
> I suppose I'm trying to raise awareness that there is something difficult
> about all this when we have to revisit slavery as cause to what is
> happening now. Perhaps it is about appropriateness. I'm not sure.
>
> Alica Garza appeared on Meet the Press today with appeals to defund the
> police. The Guardian quotes her as saying:
>
> "When we talk about defunding the police, what we’re saying is invest in
> the resources that our communities need,” she said. “So much of policing
> right now is generated and directed towards quality of life issues ... But
> what we do need is increased funding for housing, we need increased funding
> for education, we need increased funding for the quality of life of
> communities who are over-policed and over-surveilled.
>
> “... Black Lives Matter is not just a radical idea … everyone can agree
> that we don’t have the things that we need to live well, and that we are
> using policing and law enforcement in a way that far exceeds its utility.”
>
>
> In all honesty, I don't like wrangling the name "Black Lives Matter"
> because I come from a place where all lives matter, including animals and
> trees, and the oceans and land, our entire planet. Until we see that "That
> is me" everywhere we look, we will always remain disconnected from others
> and our environment and continue to "otherfy" into us and them. I don't
> think Black Lives Matter is a radical idea, because I've always thought
> that they matter. So I presume the audience to whom this speaks to are
> those who don't think that they do.
>
> If you do think they matter already then what should we be doing to better
> our society. What do you imagine is a solution? Cat got your tongue? What
> is an action to take?
>
> What I like about Alicia's discourse is that she doesn't trip into the
> statistics rabbit hole. This is again that liberal notion that if one cites
> egregious statistics that's going to somehow get people riled up to act. It
> doesn't work. Alicia offers a pathway to a SOLUTION. She uses her speech to
> explain not what she IS AGAINST, but what she IS FOR.
>
> It's about quality of life. Is it so hard to see this?
>
> It very well may be that AA men are our canaries in the coalmine of our
> society, are they returning dead in the cage after being lowered down the
> shaft? That how the police are treating them is just a precursor of what
> lay ahead for us if we do nothing.
>
> I'm on board with supporting anti-surveillance, and training for police to
> set in stone they are SERVING their communities not monitoring communities.
>
> I also feel sad that in the way people who might want to express their
> disdain for looting end up falling into suffering contest trap. This caused
> an editor in Philadelphia to resign by equating buildings to AA lives in a
> headline "Buildings Matter too." or something to that effect. I don't think
> that that is what he meant by the headline, and I feel it's wrong to cancel
> people out like that. It's cringe-worthy as a headline but should a
> person's life be destroyed like that? If he intended to mean that, it would
> be different, but I can't believe that he meant to intimate that meaning,
> when the content of the article (as I understand)  had to do with leaving a
> hole in Philadelphia's body, and what would happen to the health of the
> city from this kind of destruction?
>
> That is the trap of the naming of this movement and why I don't like it.
>
> I suppose there is something here that has to do with a notion about
> property. And it is certainly foul to equate the worth of buildings with
> that of a demographic of people whose forebears were treated like property.
>
> But what is the message that says, "Because police destroy black lives, I
> will destroy your property" isn't that also making that kind of equation
> about property? I'm not trying to insinuate anyone who is against looting
> is making these kinds of equations, but does it mean we should be FOR
> looting?
>
> I saw as well that I did not quite explain my Gone With the Wind
> reference. Which was to say that in my teens the notion of looting was
> introduced to me when I read that novel, a fictional account of the Civil
> War. Being shot for looting was not something I could get my head around.
>
> I'm considering the subtexts and implied equations, and I wonder if they
> are coherent at all?
>
> It's a little crazy making.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Annalisa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> on behalf of Glassman, Michael <glassman.13@osu.edu>
> *Sent:* Sunday, June 7, 2020 6:38 AM
> *To:* eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject:* [Xmca-l] Re: My Hometown Minneapolis
>
>
> *  [EXTERNAL]*
>
> Black men are 2.5 more likely to be killed by police than white men. What
> makes this much, much worse is that most Black men are taught from very
> early in life the dangers they face in dealing with police and have
> strategies set for de-escalation. The first point you can get with a few
> key strokes. The second point maybe you have to live in the U.S. for.
>
>
>
> I do not believe the Loury McWhorter argument is based on any well founded
> social science.
>
>
>
> What I find difficult about this is that XMCA, whose earlier versions was
> one of the earliest well-functioning communities is being use to
> proliferate this type of information, or I would say misinformation. The
> list has always run with minimalist moderation but I wonder if it is
> possible in this day and age.
>
>
>
> These are observations. I have no desire to argue about this with anybody.
>
>
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> *From:* xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> *On
> Behalf Of *Bill Kerr
> *Sent:* Sunday, June 7, 2020 3:59 AM
> *To:* eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> *Subject:* [Xmca-l] Re: My Hometown Minneapolis
>
>
>
> hi Anthony,
>
> I watched both videos.
>
>
>
> Coleman Hughes argues that the Black Lives Matter movement is based on a
> half truth. True that the police treat blacks worse. Not true that they
> murder disproportionately more blacks than whites. The problem with the
> police is corruption (not being independently investigated) not
> disproportionate murder of black people.
>
>
>
> Glen Loury and John McWhorter teach me the real history of American race,
> that things have moved on, progress has been made since Lincoln and MLKing,
> and the importance of identifying the real reasons of black disadvantage,
> arising paradoxically from the 1960s, and not that racism is the American
> DNA. eg. the meme that school is a white persons domain arose in part from
> the bussing movement which gave many blacks a terrible school experience.
>
>
>
> There are some parallels in Australia, eg. welfare dependency which is one
> of the biggest if not the biggest problem for aboriginals here arose from
> the chain events which followed from the 1967 referendum where they were
> recognised at citizens for the first time. This led to equal pay which led
> to aboriginal workers being sacked which led to welfare dependency which
> led to grog which led to more black on black violence etc. This history has
> been written, eg. by Peter Sutton, The Politics of Suffering, but is still
> not widely understood.
>
>
>
> Thank you
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 10:38 AM Anthony Barra <anthonymbarra@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> I'm hearing people talk of cabin fever and itchy scratchy restlessness,
> and I think that is one unifying thing that almost everyone here can relate
> to!  What a year so far.
>
>
>
> I promise, these two conversations are very interesting, for anyone
> potentially curious:
>
> First, this one https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hWQmzgiKXQ__;!!Mih3wA!Xg88O-VI78dVBzFH4qkTTrPz4V4L9hTV7PL8it682OJ_-GDfr_ZIPPdLeb9MSkOtyBhoSQ$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hWQmzgiKXQ__;!!Mih3wA!XgM3_X1riF_AYwqfZ7zTT0dslCVEzwkmg1Kw-a63ReNKrqh653kZrirxQ_TR4yBatxTfPw$> featuring
> Glenn Loury and John McWhorter -- piggybacking on the 1619 Project link
> that Martin shared earlier today (thanks for sharing that)
>
>
>
> and in my honest opinion, this is the single most down-the-middle
> commentary on recent events in the US, via Coleman Hughes:
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://youtu.be/8C-VrsK93GE__;!!Mih3wA!Xg88O-VI78dVBzFH4qkTTrPz4V4L9hTV7PL8it682OJ_-GDfr_ZIPPdLeb9MSkOUydN6Sw$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/youtu.be/8C-VrsK93GE__;!!Mih3wA!XgM3_X1riF_AYwqfZ7zTT0dslCVEzwkmg1Kw-a63ReNKrqh653kZrirxQ_TR4yB6mIcWCw$>
>   (as least as far as I've yet encountered).  Coleman shares his
> perspective as a protest attendee, and also much more than that.
>
>
>
> Somewhat of a warning: there's a fair amount of pain expressed in these
> videos, but not exactly conventional, as these commentaries do cut against
> the headwinds a fair amount.
>
>
>
> Thank you,
>
>
>
> Anthony
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Jun 6, 2020 at 8:43 PM Annalisa Aguilar <annalisa@unm.edu> wrote:
>
> To the wonderful garden of Us and Them,
>
>
>
> I'm not sure why I wrote that, it just seemed to come out. Like the riot
> of expression that gobsmacked me as I saw this thread extending to 46,
> including mine, though I know the tapestry is still weaving us and them
> here and in the streets for a little while still.
>
>
>
> To whoever said it, I don't think that it's that people don't like the
> color of Trump's hair, but his orange-ness, which makes it so strange for
> him to promote white supremacy. An black star enigma surrounded by a riddle
> small waving hands wrapped in a spray tan. It should be orange supremacy,
> shouldn't it?
>
>
>
> I also wanted to offer, for those of us who organize peaceful protest, we
> must also have a bullet-proof strategy (pun intended) to counter
> violently-intentioned infiltrators. This strategy must have enough cheeky
> chutzpah to bend the myth that peaceful protesters are namby-pambies with
> flowers in their hair. Does this exist? Has it been designed?
>
>
>
> I have seen people yell down a few no-nos running about by yelling in
> unison NO VIOLENCE! NO VIOLENCE! It worked.
>
>
>
> NO Vi-Oh-LENCE!
>
>
>
> Perhaps it has to do with spacing and cadence, something David might
> appreciate.
>
>
>
> We learn violence, and then we must unlearn it. Violence is an act of
> desperation once enough people feel disrespected, if even the number is
> just one.
>
>
>
> Of course my suggestion may not be the best possible, but I wonder if
> there is such an on-the-ground ad hoc strategy for aikido maneuvers by
> peaceful protesters to differentiate themselves from chaotic pretenders and
> the police who need them to be pretending chaotically, so they can
> rationalize their dear riot gear.
>
>
>
> Now the antifa, on the other hand, have a wonderful moniker, sly and
> clever how it doesn't weave "fascism" into it fully, the way it is
> referential in function, like if I were to say, "Don't think of an elepha."
> They are like crouching tigers and hidden dragons, black ninjas who
> architect surprise. It's almost performance art. At the same time like
> watching a pincer move, in action with peaceful protesters, It's a
> beautiful think. Cornell West wrote recently in the Guardian that if the
> antifa were not present in Charlottesville he may have been killed. So I
> wondered about that coupling of forces. Is that what appears to be
> solidifying in the rhythms of the recent protests? What do other's think?
>
>
>
> I can't speak to the looting, as I would never ever do it. I remember
> coming across the concept or looting when I was challenged by my friends in
> 7th grade to read all of Gone With the Wind. And that they shot and killed
> looters on the spot. I supposed that concept too has gone out the window.
> Not that I'd want to see that mind you, but it is punny.
>
>
>
> There were curfews for a few days, but it's been lifted as of a few nights
> back. As I am writing this I am hearing helicopters cir
>
>
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